The traditional narrative of the Russian Civil War is one of revolution against counterrevolution, Bolshevik Reds against Tsarist Whites. Liudmila Novikova convincingly demonstrates, however, that the struggle was not between a Communist future and a Tsarist past; instead, it was a bloody fight among diverse factions of a modernizing postrevolutionary state.

Reveals the brutal acts of local functionaries in Stalin's Soviet Union that added up to more than a million citizen deaths in 1937-38. Spurred by ambition or fear, local secret police filled quotas for arresting "enemies of the people"--even when it meant fabricating evidence.